A not so magical kingdom

[luvmy3]

I'd rather be looking at that stuff than whats going on outside me NY home window.

 

[manning]

We are here at WDW and saw a notice that
splash is down until the end of Feb. Usually it is for Jan and last year it opened up about mid Jan.

This may be a major rehab.

 

[dislaney]

I'd still rather be at WDW than at home...

I totally agree.

 

[wvdisluv2]

We leave on the 27th~if this is the WORST thing that happens...we'll be ok
We're looking forward to our vacation no matter what

 

[kirbsam]

looks pretty magical to me yet.

 

[safetymom]

http://www.disunplugged.com/2010/01/15/disney-is-sprucing-up-cinderella-castle-at-magic-kingdom/

 

[chell]

As others have said at least they are working on it and fixing up everything instead of letting it all get run down. It has to happen at some point.

They really did try to protect all the plants when it got so cold. We were there during the coldest part and they were covering up everything to protect it from freezing.

 

[NYPDwife]

I'd still rather be at WDW than at home...

I agree!!!!!

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We are here at WDW and saw a notice that
splash is down until the end of Feb. Usually it is for Jan and last year it opened up about mid Jan.

This may be a major rehab.

It may need it. It was broken down in June and Sept. a few times during both our trips last year.

Those are pretty depressing pics,. I won't go in January. I know it needs to be done, I just try and avoid some of it.

 

[Colleen27]

I know it isn't unusual for Jan, but that is a LOT more construction than we ran into on our Jan trip 2 years ago. I'm very glad we made the semi-last-minute decision to change our trip from Jan to Dec. The photographer in me would have hated to have the drained moats, construction walls, and crane in our "baby's first Disney trip" pictures!

 

[Poohbear123]

Not a problem for me, I arrive in 17 days and will be SO GLAD to be there than Here! The WHOLE park can close down for all I care, there are LOTS of other things to do!

 

[Buckalew11]

I'm not complaining about what I saw, it was just odd to see it like that as I never had before--so much at once. It was depressing though to see where the cold temps got the flowers and shrubs. There was no way they could save everything. And they were quick to cut back the dead in many areas. I even saw new flowers planted (and even planted one myself that was missed. )

 

[DisMN]

I must be the odd duck out here *quack* because I think the construction stuff is facinating!! Instead of behind the scenes tours we get to see underneath the scenes tours!
Yep, we'll be yet again missing a few of our favorite rides/attractions but the maintenance really does have to be done for safety of everyone.
Thanks for sharing these cool pics!

 

[SandrA9810]

Splash always does a big refurb, and they always drain it.

The crane always goes up in september and jan for the christmas lights. And a couple years back they did a repainting of the turrets, so the crane was up A LOT.

Now that is the first time I've seen the moat drained. The rivers of america are well over due for a cleaning as well. That one's going to stink even more because there's more fish living in it. And they're not stocked with fish, they make their way through the canals.

But it's always fun to see the refurbs and how things are done. At the start of 09 it seemed like everything went under refurb. And tons of places got fresh coats of paint and such that weren't originally scheduled for. But with the bad turnout, it made it that much easier to get it all done.


And Disney does go out of it's way to protect the plants. But you gotta remember, a lot of the plantings in the flower beds were for the holidays. So they probably let the freeze take them over before going in and putting in the new selection. In 07 at DAK, they had massive heaters in the oasis to help keep things warm. They only opened up the left side until about 10-11am when they finally moved all the heaters out of the way. Granted the cold freeze only lasted a couple days, this year it lasted like a couple weeks.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

I will be SKIPPING through all of the refurbs in 6 days!!!!!

CAN'T WAIT!!!

 

[OK!]

As others have said at least they are working on it and fixing up everything instead of letting it all get run down. It has to happen at some point.

They really did try to protect all the plants when it got so cold. We were there during the coldest part and they were covering up everything to protect it from freezing.

...and for those they couldn't save, they did this:

(this was right outside Le Cellier, taken on 01/11/10. Those gardens got hit HARD.)

 

[manning]

This seems to be a good move on Disney's part. They are a big company with access to money.

With the economy in the dumps they would be able to get some really good bids for reconstruction/rehab work.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Well I know refurbs need to be done to keep the parks at their best but boy those pictures make me glad to know I would never normally travel to WDW during Jan, Feb or March. Yikes!

 

[vicb]

Well I know refurbs need to be done to keep the parks at their best but boy those pictures make me glad to know I would never normally travel to WDW during Jan, Feb or March. Yikes!

okey dokey... that's why we love going the last week of Feb.... low crowds! We don't mind the occasional shut down of attractions. We've done them all on one trip or another. We try to be flexible with the weather and such and usually have had very good luck.

 

[Buckalew11]

Yeah, none of this will ever stop me from going or wanting to go during Jan, Feb or March.